ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 



export. It is not easy however to discover the process by which the offi- 

 cers of the Customs managed the business of corn exports and imports 1 . 



Barley and malt fall about 4.?. and 5^. yd. on the general average. 

 Here again the decline is less in some districts than others. It is 

 least in the South, South-west and Northern counties, considerable in 

 the other divisions, and most (about Ss. 6d.) in the Midland localities. 

 The difference between barley and malt is so slight as to prove that 

 the producer did not pay the duty, at least before sale, and that it 

 must have been paid by the purchaser when the goods were delivered, 

 as was the common custom in the early days of the excise. The 

 highest average of barley is at Brecon, %is. ; the next at Devizes, 

 25^. 2 1</.; the next at Warrington, 24^. 8 \d.\ next at Pembroke, 23^. i id. 

 At London the average is 1 7.$-. \d. The lowest price of barley is at 

 Oxford, where it is nearly all through the year at i2s. Next to this is 

 Bury, with 135-. z\d. Of the whole forty-eight localities, twenty- three 

 have a price below 2os. The highest price of malt is at Brecon, 3 is. 8d.; 

 the next at Pembroke, 26^. pf </.; the next at Liverpool, 23^. $\d. The 

 average at London is 2os. q\d. The lowest price is at Bury 

 S. Edmund's, i6s. ^\d. 



Oats on the general average bear a fall of about 2s. 4</., the fall 

 being slight in the Eastern, South-western and Northern localities, and 

 being most considerable in the Midland. Only one average, Dun- 

 stable, 2is. g\d., is over 20^., where there seems to be a local scarcity, 

 the average of the great majority being below 15^. The lowest is 

 Nottingham, gs. 6d.; the next Stamford and Ripon, each los. The 

 price in London is low, us. g\d. Rye falls nearly 7^., and is hardly 

 anywhere exceptionally dear, the highest price, Richmond, being 32^., 

 wheat being 35,$-. 2\d. in this town. In London, rye is 2o.r. The 

 lowest price is Melton Mowbray, 1 7 s. >jd. Beans and the two kinds 

 of peas also fall, and to nearly the same amount, almost 3^. a quarter ; 

 and the fall is very generally distributed. The highest price of beans 

 is at Devizes, 36^. ; the next at Melton Mowbray, 34^. 4</. These 

 figures seem to point to local scarcity. The price in London is 

 19*. %d. The highest price of grey peas is at Warrington, 37,?. $d. ; the 

 next at Southampton and Wantage, 32^. The price in London is 

 28^. 2\d. The highest price of white peas is at Richmond, 42,?.; the 

 next at Andover, Hereford, and Ripon, 40^. The price in London is 



1 See for a summary of the laws regulating the corn trade, and the machinery of 

 the Customs, Governor Pownall's Memoir to the Treasury in Young's Political 

 Arithmetic, p. 303. 



